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gold Here is some eTCL starter code for the length of an oil molecule. The impetus for these calculations was checking some references in Sanskrit mathematics and the Roman poet Lucretius. Most of the testcases involve experiments or models, using assumptions and rules of thumb.

The gist of the calculations is finding the height of the oil slick as the length of the oil molecule. An eye dropper is used to drop one drop of oil into a bowl of water. Since the volume of oil is known, the height of the oil slick would be volume divided by the surface area of the circular oil slick. The average length of the atoms composing the oil molecule would be the height of the oil slick divided by the number of atoms in the oil molecule (12 for olive oil).

For home experiments, obtain a centimeter ruler, eye dropper from pharmacy, cereal bowl about 15 centimeters or more in diameter, and a small bottle of oil. The home experiments reported here used olive oil, but other oils are usable. Fill the bowl with about 3/4 water at room temperature. Distilled water without chlorine is advisable, but not absolutely necessary. Place oil drop in the center of the bowl. The oil should spread out into a circle or oval and then retreat somewhat due to surface tension. Measure the diameter of the oil slick, just after the oil slick contracts due to surface tension. Just after the contraction, the molecules are shoulder to shoulder and the best orientation. In a few minutes, the oval oil slick will disperse or change into an irregular shape. For the experiments, 20 drops = 1 milliliter and 1 drop = 0.05 milliliter of oil. It is very important to try to drop the same amount each time, under the same temperature conditions. After a few trys with the eye dropper and when similar or average diameters are seen, write the oil slick diameters and temperature of the room/oil. Averaging the oil slick diameters over three or more times seemed to give the best results.

Trying to find some earlier estimates of atomic theory from other cultures. The Svetasvatara Upanisad of Vedic literature indicated an atman was one ten thousandth of the diameter of a human hair, expressed as (1/00)*(1/100). or 10-4 . A human hair averages 80 microns or 8E4 nanometers. An atman would be 8E4/1E-4 or 8 nanometers. Possibly, the Sanskrit word atman (soul particle?) was derived from atman (breath). In some Sanskrit texts, the root word ama (mother or source) was associated or used as meaning soul. Since an insulin molecule is 5 nanometers and a hemogoblin molecule is 6 nanometers, an atman of 8 nanometers compares to human molecules within an order of magnitude.

The Sumerians used oil films in bowls for divination purposes under tutoring of gods Enhil, Enki, and Ea, ref WG. Lambert (Enmeduranki,pg115) circa 2500BCE. Sumerian mathematics was quite capable enough to figure the volume of oil and the diameter of an oil slick, but there is no known text on this issue. The nearest Old Babylonian texts are coefficient lists to figure the thickness of bitumen waterproofing of floors and the thickness of orpiment paint on walls.

Early references to atomic theory in English."It is as easy to count atomies as to resolve the propositions of a lover" from Shakespeare, As You Like It, 1590 CE. This Shakespeare quote is believed to be derived from the Roman Lucretius, 20 CE. Benjamin Franklin was performing oil and oil slick experiments in 1780's France under influence of French scientists.

In 1890, Lord Rayleigh published an R.S. paper on pieces of camphor affected by thin olive oil films. In one experiment, 81 milligrams of olive oil or 0.9 cubic centimeters of olive oil was spread a diameter of 84 cm over water in a metal tray. Lord Rayleigh estimated the thickness of the olive oil film at 1.63 micro-millimetres. Not to overstate the case, the original Rayleigh paper in 1890 did not claim the thickness of the oil film represented a single layer of molecules. At this point, we are primarily checking the accuracy of the eTCL calculator in estimating the thickness of the oil film. The eTCL calculator returned a molecule length of 1.624 nanometers for olive oil and an average length of oil atoms as 1.624/12 or 0.135 nanometers. The eTCL calculator is returning compatible thickness with the table of film trials in the Rayleigh report.

Pseudocode Section

pseudocode can be developed from rules of thumb.
pseudocode: enter diameter in cm, number of atoms in oil molecule
pseudocode: output film thickness in nanometers
pseudocode: average of atoms equals film thickness/ (number_of_atoms)
pseudocode: rules of thumb can be 3 to 15 percent off, partly since g..in g..out.
pseudocode: need test cases > small,medium, giant
pseudocode: need testcases within range of expected operation.
pseudocode: are there any cases too small or large to be solved?

Testcases Section

In planning any software, it is advisable to gather a number of testcases to check the results of the program. The math for the testcases can be checked by pasting statements in the TCL console. Aside from the TCL calculator display, when one presses the report button on the calculator, one will have console show access to the capacity functions (subroutines).

Pushbutton Operation

For the push buttons, the recommended procedure is push testcase and fill frame, change first three entries etc, push solve, and then push report. Report allows copy and paste from console.

For testcases in a computer session, the eTCL calculator increments a new testcase number internally, eg. TC(1), TC(2) , TC(3) , TC(N). The testcase number is internal to the calculator and will not be printed until the report button is pushed for the current result numbers (which numbers will be cleared on the next solve button.) The command { calculate; reportx } or { calculate ; reportx; clearx } can be added or changed to report automatically. Another wrinkle would be to print out the current text, delimiters, and numbers in a TCL wiki style table as